More and more people are showing up at the center to pick up bagged lunches, or bags of food to help them make it through the month, and the list of homeless people seeking housing through Operation Warmheart from November through January is almost filled. “This is the worst I’ve seen it,” he said Friday morning.

Maziarz was at Red Lobster on Route 22 in Union making his every-other week pickup of food “harvested” by employees to take to the center.

General Manager of Red Lobster Maria Borja explained the restaurant employees “harvest throughout the day.” The corporate rule is that “anything that would be served to a guest, but is unable to be served,” should be harvested. As long as the food has been cooked but hasn’t been taken to the table, it goes into the “green bin,” a small container in the restaurant’s refrigerator. Every morning, as part of the opening crew’s morning duties, the cooks harvest the previous day’s food, bag like items together, log them in and freeze them, Borja said.

Every other Friday, Marizra picks up about 200 pounds of frozen food, including baked potatoes, biscuits, vegetables, seafood and other proteins, loads them into his van and takes them to Elizabeth. That’s more than 5,000 pounds of food a year, just from that one restaurant. In New York and Northern New Jersey, Red Lobster has donated more than 446,700 pounds of food through the program — 58,600 pounds within the past 12 months, according to the company.

Borja said she has heard that recipients especially appreciate seafood because it is so seldom donated. “At the beginning, the harvesting program was presented as a nice thing to do but it is part of our DNA now,” she said. So much so that she looked around to find another group to help and settled on Solid Rock Baptist Church in Irvington. The first time she volunteered at an event there, she went alone, “The next time, I brought a crew with me,” she said. They continue to volunteer there.

Everyone who participates likes that the food “goes to someone who needs it the most,” she said.

Darden Restaurants, Red Lobster’s parent company, supports these types of recycling and charitable efforts, so when it is time to change up the plates or glassware or cutlery, the items are also donated to an appropriate location, she said.

Friday, along with a big box of frozen shrimp, lobster, fish and other proteins, there were bags of broccoli, a good number of baked potatoes and lots of Cheddar Bay Biscuits — these are baked fresh every 20 minutes, so there are usually a bag of those in every donation. Some weeks there are even a few big lobsters.

Culinary Manager Richard Scent and Percy Rojas, the culinary professional on site, both support the harvest program and were helping carry boxes on Friday.

The food was driven down to St. Joseph Social Service Center at 118 Division Ave., Elizabeth, where volunteers waited to help unload donations and help people delivering other donations find parking.

Maziarz opened one of two garage doors and showed the boxes and boxes of canned goods and non-perishable items stored there. Much of it will be put into individual grocery bags which are packed up by volunteers. The food comes from the food pantry which has received food through the United States Department of Agriculture and New Jersey’s State Food Purchase Program, as well as donations. Other food is purchased through the food pantry with money donated to the center. These bags are given to 550 to 600 families every month.

Then there are the “emergency bags,” which are given to people who have lost their home to a fire or a flood or other disaster. Those are made up and given out as needed and often the state reimburses the center.

Every weekday from 9 a.m. to noon, between 250 and 300 people pick up bagged lunches at the center. Every Saturday there is a soup kitchen there which serves from 250 to 300 people. Four different churches donate food to the kitchen, Maziarz said.

This year he said “I’ve seen more families at the soup kitchen than ever.” He’s been volunteering for the center for nine years, and to hear him say “This is the worst,” is unsettling.

At Thanksgiving and Christmas, the center provides a holiday dinner in a grocery bag to 1,000 families, with each family receiving a turkey. Most of the turkeys are donated to St. Joseph Social Service Center, although some are purchased.

A group of 15-20 volunteers help run the center. One of them, Peggy Silvey, has been helping for about 30 years, first at Our Lady of Fatima, then at St. Joseph’s.

The center was started by Sister Jacinta Fernandez and Sister Edie. “We started this together in 1981 at Our Lady of Fatima then, in 1986, moved over here, ”, said Sister Edie. They founded the Elizabeth Coalition to House the Homeless and are on the board of that group and Sister Jacinta is the director and Sister Edie co-director of the center.

Red Lobster is not the only corporate donor but it is a vital and consistent one.

As they do every Friday, employees with Phillips 66 Bayway Refinery, Linden, dropped off a load of unsold food from its cafeteria, along with some clothes and toys. Mary Phillips said the company, in partnership with Infineum USA L.P., participates in an outreach program and the center is only one place they help.

Bread often is donated through bakeries at Shop Rite, Kings and Trader Joes, said Maziarz.

One thing he knows is there is never enough to take care of everyone who needs help but they try very hard not to let anyone down.

The food program is only one of several programs run out of the center. To learn more, visit the website.